Chapter 1406: A Common Soldier

Sparks whirled through the air. Nothing could be seen anymore, nothing at all, only a mountain of collapsed debris blazing with painful, glaring light.

The heat was tremendous. Standing before that sea of fire felt no different from being roasted over open flame.

Yuan Gang's skin burned with pain. His clothing and hair had begun to scorch and curl, yet he remained silent. Huyan Wei had entrusted him with a final request, and he had failed to fulfill it.

The clothes on his body were riddled with holes, ragged and torn from the countless arrows that had struck him.

Only after a long while did Yuan Gang turn away. He walked back to Huyan Wei's corpse and stared down at it for some time. Then his saber flashed down with a hiss, pierced the stone paving, and buried itself in the ground.

Yuan Gang crouched, pulled the arrows from Huyan Wei's body, lifted the corpse in both arms, then turned and walked once more toward the sea of flames.

The rebels outside, cultivators included, watched in silence, uncertain what he meant to do.

The imperial palace had already fallen. Its last defending force had been destroyed. They were in no hurry now.

At the edge of the flames, Yuan Gang stopped and gazed for a moment at the bloodstained, bearded face in his arms. Then he suddenly swung both arms and threw Huyan Wei's corpse into the fire.

War here had the custom of displaying an enemy corpse as a warning. Yuan Gang did not want Huyan Wei's body humiliated and used after death. Sending him into the flames to reunite with Hao Qingqing was not a bad choice.

He did not watch as the corpse disappeared into the burning wreckage. Instead, he turned back, returned to the saber planted in the ground, gripped the hilt, and pulled it free. Then he walked forward until he stood at the edge of the steps and swept his gaze across the rebels.

Chang Linxian, Sect Leader of Lingxu Mansion, suddenly shouted, "Who exactly are you? State your name!"

Yuan Gang did not answer. His gaze fixed on the general beneath the great banner bearing the character Gu. It fixed on Gu Yuanda.

Then he suddenly exploded forward.

The massed rebels and the cultivators mixed among them naturally could not stand aside. They had no choice but to intercept him.

"Ah..."

Screams erupted and flesh flew. Wrapped in a storm of saber-light, Yuan Gang drove through the crowd like a blade cleaving waves apart. No one could stop him.

When the people beneath the commander's banner saw him charging toward them, they immediately realized Gu Yuanda was his target.

Sure enough, once Yuan Gang came close, he suddenly launched himself into the air and swung his saber toward the commander's banner.

The Sect Leaders of the former State of Wei's Three Great Sects reacted instantly. Seizing Gu Yuanda from horseback, they leapt into the air and drifted backward.

Yuan Gang had no ability to fly through the air as cultivators did. He still came down at his original destination, and the instant he landed, a group of cultivators closed around him.

They had already seen how ferocious his attacks were. None wanted to meet him head-on. They only entangled him and fought defensively.

Meanwhile, the three former Wei Sect Leaders had already escorted Gu Yuanda down onto a gate tower farther back in the inner city.

Yuan Gang ignored everything else. He forced his way out of the encirclement and charged toward the gate tower. As he neared it, he launched himself like a cannon shot and hurtled toward the top.

Before he could arrive, however, several men had already seized Gu Yuanda and shot into the sky. Large flying mounts patrolling overhead came at their summons, took them aboard, and climbed higher.

Landing atop the gate tower, Yuan Gang looked up at Gu Yuanda in the sky. Grief and fury filled him with nowhere to go. He pointed his saber upward and bellowed, "Gu Yuanda!"

The flying mounts circling above seemed to lose control in an instant. They began wheeling and tumbling wildly, forcing their handlers to shake their finger bells urgently to steady them.

At that moment, a group of old men dropped onto the gate tower around Yuan Gang. One of them even carried iron chains. They were the Supreme Elders of the former State of Wei's Three Great Sects.

Yuan Gang had proven too troublesome, so the old monsters had personally stepped in.

He immediately raised his saber and swept his gaze around. Spinning, he slashed apart a palm-aura strike, then charged hard at one man, forcing the latter into a rapid retreat.

Several iron chains came whipping through the air. Yuan Gang twisted and hacked at them, producing a torrent of metallic clangs and showers of sparks.

But faced with enemies who only entangled him and refused to contest his strength directly, Yuan Gang could not guard every direction. He soon lost his balance and was dragged crashing to the ground.

One man used spiritual power to control an iron chain that wrapped around Yuan Gang's ankles. With a violent pull, he yanked Yuan Gang flat and dragged him backward.

Yuan Gang twisted over and chopped down with all his strength.

Clang! The iron chain snapped.

But that hurried act of freeing himself gave the others an opening. Almost simultaneously, iron chains wrapped around both his wrists.

Two old men immediately seized one chain each and pulled his arms apart.

Yuan Gang sprang up from the ground with the motion and hauled both arms inward with brute force. The two old men, straining against him with spiritual power, were dragged back so violently that their feet plowed through the paving stones with a rumbling crash.

Two more Supreme Elders from the three sects immediately joined each side and helped pull the chains. Only then were Yuan Gang's arms gradually forced apart again.

One of the old men hauling on a chain cried out in astonishment, "What monstrous brute strength!"

How could he not be shocked? Every one of these old men stood at the peak of the Golden Core Realm. Yet two of them using spiritual power together could not overpower one man's raw physical strength. It took three men on each side to hold him. The sheer absurdity of Yuan Gang's strength was obvious.

No wonder he had been able to cut down a Golden Core cultivator with a single stroke.

"I'd like to see just how thick your hide really is!" one old man said coldly. He shot into the air and unleashed his full strength. Sword-light poured down like a waterfall, howling straight toward Yuan Gang's head.

Pinned in place by the forces pulling from both sides, Yuan Gang had nowhere to evade.

"AAAH!" In the instant of crisis, he let out a furious roar. Veins bulged across his body as he poured every ounce of strength into a violent twist.

The six men dragging at him from either side were actually jolted off balance.

Yuan Gang managed to wrench his body aside and avoid the waterfall of sword-light descending toward his head. His vitals escaped, but his outstretched arms had nowhere to go.

Blood sprayed as one arm flew away.

The sword-light had sliced straight through and severed it. The iron chain wrapped around that wrist yanked the arm holding his saber away.

"Ngh..." Yuan Gang let out a muffled grunt of pain and lashed out with a frenzied kick. The old man who had cut off his arm spat blood and flew backward.

At the same time, Yuan Gang threw himself toward one side. Freed from the control on the other, his body shot forward like a projectile and smashed toward the three men still hauling the remaining chain.

All three leapt into the air together, passing over Yuan Gang as he hurtled beneath them. The instant they landed, they poured spiritual power into the chain and pulled with all their might, once again dragging Yuan Gang off his feet before he could regain his balance.

Chains rattled. The three men who had pulled away the severed arm flung it aside, flashed through the formation, and cast their chains again, this time wrapping Yuan Gang's ankles.

One side held his remaining arm and the other his legs. Yuan Gang was stretched between them again, this time suspended horizontally above the ground.

Blood poured from the severed shoulder.

The old man Yuan Gang had kicked away came flying back, coughing blood, and shouted fiercely, "Let's see where you dodge now!"

He struck again from the air. Waterfall-like sword-light howled down toward Yuan Gang's waist, plainly intending to cut him in half.

Just then, a phantom-like figure flashed in.

Before anyone could understand what had happened, the old man bringing down the sword flew away with a bang, hurled like a meteor. With a crash, he smashed through the wall of the gate tower and disappeared inside.

The men hauling the chains were shocked. The three Sect Leaders watching from the sky were equally stunned. None had even seen where this new person had come from.

The newcomer looked like nothing more than a common soldier in the rebel army. A strip of cloth beneath his helmet concealed his face. He moved with astonishing speed, seized one end of an iron chain, and gave it a shake. The chain wound around Yuan Gang's wrist instantly sprang loose of its own accord.

The soldier grabbed Yuan Gang by the belt, lifted him bodily, and rushed toward the three men pulling from the other side.

He did not actually collide with them. Instead, he abruptly carried Yuan Gang into the air and brought one foot down on the chain. With no more than a tap of his toe, the chain around Yuan Gang's ankles likewise sprang apart by itself.

Carrying Yuan Gang, the soldier flew away from the gate tower. After only a few bounds he was already far off. Cultivators rushing in nearby to stop him were sent flying in every direction. Not one could stand in his way.

The Supreme Elders on the gate tower watched them go, shocked and uncertain, exchanging uneasy looks from time to time. The short-haired giant had already been bizarre enough. Now another bizarre expert had appeared, one capable of rescuing a man from their hands with ease. Calling his strength unfathomable would not be an exaggeration.

"Do we pursue?" one man asked, glancing up at the flying mounts that had gone after them to investigate.

An old man beside him replied, "With that man's strength, if we catch him, can we stop him?"

"Cough, cough..." A clatter came from inside the gate tower, accompanied by coughing.

Someone immediately flashed inside to look. The Supreme Elder who had been struck away was struggling to brace himself against a wall. He tried to rise, only to collapse again, coughing blood again and again.

A fellow sect member hurried forward to support him. "Senior Brother, how are you?"

The coughing old man recognized him, then shook his dazed head hard and panted, "That newcomer's strength is beyond our ability to stop. Withdraw quickly!"

He had taken one blow and still could not gauge the newcomer's true depth, but he knew enough to understand the disparity.

The man supporting him said, "Senior Brother, don't worry. He's already gone."

...

In the small courtyard, Hao Zhen looked up toward the column of smoke rising in the distance and murmured, "That's the direction of the imperial palace. The rebels have taken the palace..."

Shao Liuer walked to his side. Knowing what worried him, she comforted him. "Your Highness, don't worry. The Three Great Sects should already have taken His Majesty and the others away."

Hao Zhen shook his head slightly. "There are still many people who cannot leave."

Shao Liuer understood. The cultivators defending the capital could not possibly take everyone. The fate awaiting the imperial consorts who fell into rebel hands scarcely needed imagining.

Guo Man returned from outside and smiled as she nodded to the two of them.

Hao Zhen turned and called after her. "Miss Guo, how is the fighting in the city?"

Guo Man stopped and sighed. "The fighting is already over. The rebels have taken complete control of the capital and are carrying out the final scattered sweeps." With that, she left. There was little more she could say; telling him too much would only cause pain.

Hao Zhen looked again toward the rising smoke, lost and desolate. "How did it come to this? Such a vast State of Qi... how could it become like this in the blink of an eye?"

A little later, the Ghost Doctor emerged, leading his two disciples, Wuxin and Wuxiang.

They had sent Guo Man to contact the people of the All-Under-Heaven Money House in the Qi capital. However fierce the fighting became, no one dared touch the All-Under-Heaven Money House.

Guo Man had located the people from Dayuan Sacred Land inside the money house and secretly informed them that the Ghost Doctor had come here under Sacred Venerable Yuan Se's decree. She asked them to contact the rebel side and arrange its cooperation.

This too had been part of Yuan Se's instructions. When traveling from place to place, if they needed help, they could simply seek out the people at the money houses. After all, the All-Under-Heaven Money House had branches in almost every city beneath Heaven.

They had come under Yuan Se's decree, so the other side did not dare neglect the request. They immediately found important figures among the rebels, communicated with them in secret, and ordered them to provide covert assistance. Everything was arranged with great speed, making it easier for the Ghost Doctor's party to proceed.

[End of Chapter 1406]